Could my necklace be making me dizzy?

[Kittee]

I recently purchased a crystal necklace that I believe to be Citrine. I felt drawn to the stone and I bought it on Autumn Equinox. This was also my first "pagan" purchase in over 8 years so I felt it would be a great start and a good crystal to have.

Curious to what I had bought as I did not know at the time what type it was, I did some research found a picture of one just like it and read...

Citrine is one of the only stones which dissipates negative energy, and never requires cleansing or clearing. Warm energy, promotes optimism. Also attracts abundance, and is known as a "merchants' stone," to be placed in cash register or where one conducts business, to not only acquire positive wealth but to maintain it as well. Activates third chakra. Enhances body's healing energy. Good for mental focus, endurance, and self-esteem.

Which is exactly what I need in my life right now. I also read in another place that it is great for thyroid ailments. Which I have.

So I started wearing it and quickly noticed that I started having severe dizzy spells. It reached a point where I took the necklace off and I haven't put it back on because it litterly felt like the ground was mushy and moving under my feet. (I was on a marble floor.) Scared me so bad I sat down ha!

Any thoughts folks?

[LadyCelt]

It doesn't hurt to cleanse it. Stones can be handled badly or have a bad past with previous users etc.

[lightdragon]

ALL stones need to be cleansed. Although citrine has a higher resistance , it still needs to be cleansed. also heat treated citrine(which is the most commonly sold as natural citrine is rare) is known to cause the opposite effects of citrine.

[Kittee]

How can I tell if it's heat treated? Would posting a picture help?

[Wolfsong]

How can I tell if it's heat treated? Would posting a picture help?


If you look in the Quartz sticky on the top of this forum there is a pic of a natural citrine under cirtine as well as a man-made one under...errrrr... *looking*.... page 4 post 33... as you can see it's pretty easy to tell the difference.... the natural stuff is a lt more subtle where as the man made stuff is very bright and most times has a very white clouded base.

[Kittee]

I have man made then. Dangit.

[Wolfsong]

Dont feel bad.. its still very useful... I'd say over 90% of what is sold as Citrine these days in man-made and less than 10% is natural...The natural stuff is actually pretty rare and a lot more expensive.

[Kittee]

Thanks :)

It's being used as a 25.00USD decoration on my computer monitor at home atm!

[Moonlight's Daughter]

Just a quick note: Some stones can be helpful in small doses with some people. For example, I love Malachite. I can only wear it next to my bare skin in small doeses as it is very intense for me. The ring I have that is Malachite and Diamonds i had to design so it was not right next to the skin.

Not all stones effect everyone the same way.

[Serenity's LostSoul]

also heat treated citrine(which is the most commonly sold as natural citrine is rare) is known to cause the opposite effects of citrine.

This is something I'd never heard before; how did you come across this information?

[lightdragon]

This is something I'd never heard before; how did you come across this information?
by talking with people. Some here and some offline.

There is debate on whether to use the heat treated variety or not. some people will not go near a man made stone let alone employ one.

I have no problems with it.

[Wolfsong]

some people will not go near a man made stone let alone employ one.

I would be one of those... mind you I only actually use 4 stones in all my direct work (the exception being some chakra work)... I do work with more indirectly and I study and work with every stone I can get my hands on just to learn its energies but these, for the most part, become part of my collection and are rarely used for anything but to enhance the energies of a room or environ (so used indirectly).

I do use tumbled stones to carry with me each day for specific energies but this is indirect or subliminal work again.

As far as radically altered stones... I try to avoid them.

All that being said I do have an assortment of altered stones to use in my classes so people can deside for themselves if they feel attracted to them. In the end that is all that matters.

[Lunacie]

If you look in the Quartz sticky on the top of this forum there is a pic of a natural citrine under cirtine as well as a man-made one under...errrrr... *looking*.... page 4 post 33... as you can see it's pretty easy to tell the difference.... the natural stuff is a lt more subtle where as the man made stuff is very bright and most times has a very white clouded base.

I couldn't find the picture of the natural citrine, only the heat treated ones. Could you please direct me a little more specifically to that picture for comparison? Thanks

[Serenity's LostSoul]

The one thing I find most interesting is that, from what I've read, 'real' citrine is made by nature heating amethysts, so how can 'man-made' citrine differ in any way when it's actually the same exact thing just done in a factory or wherever?

Also, Wolfdragon, you say in the Quartz sticky that synthetic citrine has the same properties as natural citrine, so doesn't saying that 'man-made' citrine works to the exact opposite of 'real' citrine contradict that?

[Wolfsong]

I couldn't find the picture of the natural citrine, only the heat treated ones. Could you please direct me a little more specifically to that picture for comparison? Thanks


Man-made citrine is found on page 4 post #33

Natural Citrine is found on page 4 post #37

[Wolfsong]

The one thing I find most interesting is that, from what I've read, 'real' citrine is made by nature heating amethysts, so how can 'man-made' citrine differ in any way when it's actually the same exact thing just done in a factory or wherever?

Also, Wolfdragon, you say in the Quartz sticky that synthetic citrine has the same properties as natural citrine, so doesn't saying that 'man-made' citrine works to the exact opposite of 'real' citrine contradict that?


In response to the first part of your question.. you are right.. both are caused by heating.. the difference is in that the natural process takes place over thousands if not millions of years whereas the human process takes place over minutes. Although scientifically these processes cannot be distinguished between by examining the final product there are visual clues which for the most part are quite obvious. For the most part natural cirtine has much paler colouration and is more translucent whereas manmade stuff' coloration is quite more stark and it looses some of its translucency during the process. Manmade stuff also usually produces the "white" lower sections of this quartz whereas the natural stuff, the overwhelming amount of time, doesn't show this characteristic.

In response to the properties of natural vs manmade.. this is an age old arguement within the metaphysical community. Many say the properties differ and just as many say they are the same and just as many again say the properties are polar opposites. Talk to different people and you will get different answers.

This is a good place to bring up the following again...

Natural citrine, along with many other stones, were altered and still are altered first and foremost for the jewelry industry. In many cases this was done to enhance the colors to make them more appealing to buyers and give them that perfect look which is so hard to find within nature. A second reason this was/is done is because in some cases the natural product is so rare the the prices become prohibatively high for the average person.

When these minerals/stones/crystals started being used within the metaphysical community it became all the more important to keep prices down and gave suppliers of these altered stones another market to sell in. Natural citrine is a good example... good specimens are rare and quite expensive compared to the altered stuff. As popular as it is within our community supply would never fill demand and as such would become outrageously expensive and very few people would be able to work with it. All of the Aura quartz is nother good example.... most, if not all of the different types, can be found within nature but... (I hate to say this but in a lot of cases it is the truth) they are not as eye appealing and not as readily available as the natural stuff. Yes.. even in our community a good percentage of the people look for pretty things which are also easy and fast to come buy rather than having to wait to find the not-so-common natural specimen which may not be as pretty or perfect as they would like it to be. Anyways.. enough ranting :p

Back to the citrine... natural vs manmade is probably one of the most highly contested arguements for people who work with the properties of minerals. As I have said many times.. it's really up to the individual and what works for some will not work for others.. what only matters is that it works for you.

Finally to touch on one point.. I dont think (I may be wrong however) that I ever stated that the 2 citrines had opposite properties... I know it was lightdragon who mentioned this above however and to support him I must say I know people who feel the same in this regards.

And one more thing (ranting on :) ) I know for me I use stones and crystals because in my opinion they are gifts from nature and as such I prefer them to be completely natural when possible. For me havng them manipulated takes away some of the natural feel and in sme cases a lot of the natural feel. I do however realize that in some cases it is unavoidable... in other cases people prefer it ...and yes... in other cases manipulated stones and crystals may very well be enhanced by this human contact and mor desirable.. even to me rarely.

The most important thing is to keep an open mind and do what feels right to you..

GAH... CANT STOP TYPING ON THIS SUBJECT

Keep in mind also that all of what you read or hear in regards to the properties of stones is really very general. I have related this to human language in the past... What is written about most stones is what I would consider as learning the english language.. you will learn how to communicate with anyone who speaks english but certain subtleties will be lacking... the next level is learning a local dialect.. this is sometimes talked about in books but not too often... this relates to stones in that the same stone from different countries will have slightly differing properties and a slightly different language.... after this we have family endearments that are only shared between family members and close freindes... this relates to rocks in that rocks coming from a specific pocket too have some subtle distinct properties and connections .. and lastly we all have our own spiritual/inner level of language... rocks have this a well and when you reach this level of connection with any stone or mineral or crystal you have connected to what I refer to as a life partner... these are rare and sometimes only one will come along in a lifetime. At other times one may open up to you at this level to help you with a specific crisis in your life at that time and when it is solved you may loose that special connection. Either way these stones are VERY special.

OK... I need to shut up now... hopefully some of this helps :) If I missed something let me know and I'll try and stay on topic while answering it :p

[Wolfsong]

Forgot to add the most important point.. everything above points to the fact that the only way to learn the inner most properties of any mineral (or to learn the deepest wisdom of anything) will only be found by searching within and not in any book or in anyone elses words... all you can find there is, at best, guidance. The work and wisdom must come from within.

[Lunacie]

Man-made citrine is found on page 4 post #33

Natural Citrine is found on page 4 post #37

Thank you. :hugz: I thought they were in the opposite order, first natural and then heat-treated. I believe mine is natural, which is a little surprising since I paid about $5 for it some 12 or 14 years ago, mounted on a necklace.. Of course, it's small, just under an inch, nice size for a necklace. And it's my birthstone... :woot:


btw: not everyone has the same number of posts displayed on each page... those posts are on page 2 for me.

[Wolfsong]

btw: not everyone has the same number of posts displayed on each page... those posts are on page 2 for me.


I didnt know that ..I guess the easiest way is just to give the post # then ... thank you :)

[Lunacie]

In "User CP" under options, you can choose the number of posts that are displayed on each page, and lots of other nifty options. :)

[WitchyLady777]

I used to work for someone who was from Brazil and who knew all of the local rock hounds and mine owners pretty well. At this point if you see a piece of citrine on the market for anything even vaguely a reasonable price it's most likely a heat-treated amethyst, but contrary to some of what's written above the heat treated stuff can look virtually indistinguishable from the natural stuff.

The difference lies in HOW you heat it.

If you just stuff it into a very hot oven, or clay kiln than yes, you will end up with a product that is vastly different from the natural, if on the other hand you use very low temperatures over a period of say a week, baking it in shifts? Or use sunlight and magnifying mirrors instead of an oven or kiln it can be identical to the natural specimens.

The reason you see it sold so dark all the time actually has more to do with consumer preference than the method of converting it. The darker the citrine the more most people tend to go for it. The lighter, golden varieties, the lemon shades they tend to be far less popular than the darker beer or amber shaded pieces so the people who mine or forage for the stone are treating it accordingly.

As to difference in usage, I would have to say that yes, there is a difference between commercially heat-treated citrine and natural citrine, but I am not sure it's a bad thing, the heat treating. I think it actually intensifies the stone's natural energies sometimes.

I personally had a couple of small natural specimens for years that I thought were pretty but that didn't move me very much in terms of metaphysical energy. They did have a bit of a pulse, but it was weak and they barely warmed in my palm when I held them. No amount of cleansing helped with that. They were just weak stones.

But a couple of years ago, when I started working for this guy from Brazil I picked up a heat-treated point (Most of the citrine from Brazil is heat treated amethyst. The citrine that isn't mostly comes from Russia these days and is DEAR in terms of price.) and it fairly singed my palm it was so HOT. It was recently done, the heat treating, and the stone definitely retained the energy of the heat used to change it. It was like the stone had that much more OOOMPH, and to this day, though it has calmed down considerably this particular stone still retains a lot of internal heat.

Now, at first, I just thought it was that stone, but during the course of my work with this guy I got to play with many a citrine, both natural and heat-treated and I always found that the recently treated ones were VERY energetic vs the ones that were older.

From what I can tell citrine is a stone that gets "charged" from heat. Unlike a lot of stones that do better being charged by water I find mine like sunlight, and oddly, they don't fade from it, like amethyst will, on the contrary 20 mins in the sun just charges them right up, and makes them sparkle like they are alive. I still wouldn't leave one sitting in direct sunlight for good, I think at some point they would overload and begin to fade, but I've definitely found that a brief "sunbath" now and again is a good thing for citrine. (They also like being bathed in salt.) Also, you will often find that Citrine cleanses other stones when it is around them for a while.

I have a few good pieces now, both natural and heat-treated because of working that job, and I found that properly treated citrine can be a really good thing to have around. It's good for raising energy and it's definitely good for business.

Interestingly enough, changing the amethyst to citrine?

Gives it just the opposite of the original stone's aura. Amethyst is a much calmer healer, while citrine still heals too, it is an energy raiser and FYI, can keep you up at night if you have it too near your bed!

[Wolfsong]

The difference lies in HOW you heat it.

Very true but as you stated the vast magority of the stuff that is produced is done so so that its color is very noticably different from natural citrine and as you stated this is due to the demand by jewelers and what their customers prefer which for the consumer industry is a good thing. Finding manmade citrine which closely resembles the natural stuff is, for me, just about as difficult as finding natural stuff :p

Everything else is true as well if this is how you were trained or if this is what you have learned and as I stated above this is where the big arguements begin within our community as is seen with the three differing opinions in regards to the properties of citrine. It really comes down to your beliefs and who first started guiding you on your path which in many cases has influences on your end beliefs. As I said above.. no one is right and no one is wrong.. the only important thing is that it works for you. I tend to stay out of Citrine discussions/debates simply because the beliefs pertaining to it can be so strong due to the differing opinions and hype.

On a side note its nice to see someone else who had a crystal worker from Brazil as a guide. I was influenced and guided by one 27 years ago and his teachings still play a large role in my work today :)

And awesome post WitchyLady777.. thanks for contributing :)